“Bang on market rent”: Tenants chosen for hugely popular Burnaby apartment
A one-bedroom unit that got a flood of interest as prices in Metro Vancouver’s red-hot rental market reach all-time highs is officially off the market — it’s been rented.
Managing broker Keaton Bessey listed the brand-new 500-square-foot unit on Brentwood Boulevard in Burnaby for $2,395 a month in mid-June, and got nearly 200 inquiries about it and more than a dozen formal applications, where many prospective tenants bid higher monthly rent to secure the unit.
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On Friday, Bessey announced he’d selected tenants for the unit, and they’re moving in on July 1.
“Awful that market rent is this,” Bessey said on Twitter. “But the qualified and absorbed it. Way too many others interested though.”
Initially, Bessey thought the unit may have been underpriced for the market since it was so popular. But after reviewing tenants’ income levels, he narrowed it down to a select few that his company deemed could comfortably afford it. Bessey’s company only rents to tenants whose after-tax pay is at least three times the rent — he says it’s better that way because tenants’ budgets aren’t stretched and it reduces the risk of non-payment.
The selected couple bid $2,400 monthly on the unit, with a monthly take-home pay of $7,200. That’s a combined household income of more than $86,000 annually after tax.
They beat out another couple who bid a higher monthly rent, but couldn’t move in until August 1.
In the end, Bessey concluded the unit was “bang on market rent” — for better or for worse.
Rented.
$2,400 July 1
After tax takehome of $7,200 monthly.Second best offer was $2,500 but for Aug 1, but they needed savings to qualify and applied much later in the process.
Bang on market rent.
Awful that market rent is this, but the qualified and absorbed it. Way too…
— Keaton Bessey (@kbessey) June 23, 2023
The flurry of interest was emblematic of the struggle to find (relatively) affordable housing in Metro Vancouver right now. British Columbians lead the country in spending “crisis levels” of money on rent, with one in every five people in Greater Vancouver forking over half their paycheque or more for rent.
According to the latest national rent report from Zumper, the median rent for a new tenant in a one-bedroom Vancouver apartment reached an all-time high of $2,700 per month in June. That’s a whopping 20% increase from the same time last year.
Across Metro Vancouver, liv.rent pegs the average price of a one-bedroom rental at $2,330.
“I just hope we start building more homes soon,” Bessey said.
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